★★★

► March 2011: Shortly after his 16th birthday, Kimmich is about to sign a sponsorship deal with VfB Stuttgart – the next step towards becoming a professional footballer.But even though he is seemingly flawless, Joshua’s career is suddenly put in jeopardy, because Kimmich and a few mates misbehaved at the VfB boarding school…

The now star of Bayern Munich recounts: “It was a legendary fruit fight! Various kinds of fruit were flying through the dining hall. You can imagine what an exploding kiwi looks like when it hits a white wall”.

The consequence is that the club refuses to sign the contract that was scheduled to be completed the following day.

Frieder Schrof (62), head of young talent support at VfB for 28 years: “I said that we will postpone signing the contract for a few days”.

Kimmich: “We all had to move out for a week. My parents were extremely disappointed in me. I thought: ‘How stupid am I?’ My ultimate goal is in danger”.

Auch Interessant

It wasn’t the only time that young Joshua went too far.

Kimmich: “A lot of things happened that not everybody should know about. However, it’s quite normal to come up with stupid ideas when you’re living together with 18 other boys”.

Kimmich today: He has a contract with Bayern Munich until 2020. His market value: 25 Mio EuroFoto: Niko Schmid-Burgk

The head of the boarding school, Oliver Otto (44), says: “He once had to pay a penalty. He paid with Zlotys instead of Euros and thought we wouldn’t notice”.

Kimmich moves into the academy at age 14. His father Berthold: “My wife was very sad. She said: ‘I cannot give my 14-year-old child away’”.

Joshua stays there for four years. With the head of the boarding school, he visits his old room.

Kimmich remembers: “It was an incredible time. When I moved in, I was the youngest one. In the beginning, you are a nobody. Towards the end, the advisors want to talk to you”.

To earn a bit of extra money, he makes the beds for his colleagues. Kimmich: “There were a number of tasks at the boarding school that not everybody enjoyed doing. They then offered a small fee to people who would take care of these tasks. So I took the money, of course”.

Kimmich (f.) is eating with academy head Otto in the canteen. Here flew the fruit through the roomFoto: Privat

★★★

Read tomorrow in BILD: Part 3 – My Motivation.

You can watch the first five episodes of the video series now with BILDplus.

This stars came out of the VfB-Academy

Before Joshua Kimmich (22) there have been a lot of talents running through the academy of the VfB Stuttgart: